Strider, The Defender
by Epsilon Zeta
Summary: The entity recalls events from the disaster at the judgement test to discovering the true faces of darkness...


Author's Notes: Here is Strider's history for anyone who had questions.  
  
Disclaimers: Cardcaptors belong to CLAMP, non-Clow cards used as spells and some other stuff belong to Wizards of the Coast. The only guys I own is Strider and Shadow so don't sue!!  
  
Strider, The Defender  
  
I looked at the Clow mistress, who was celebrating a victory with her colleague Li against Tsabo's soldiers. (In order to understand this, you must read the first few chapters of "Enter Tsabo") She had great promise to be a sorceress. If she keeps that determination up against Yue, she could pass the test unlike the Sakura of my homeworld.  
  
Confusing? Yes it is. You must know that there are parallel worlds for every possibility. Worlds with Sakura and Li dying. Worlds with purity or great sorrow. Worlds that are created by the powers that be, people beyond the words of this story who write their tales and create even more worlds. People who write scripts for actors and actresses to create more worlds. They also spawn stories in the heads of others that must be told to create a new world.   
  
Where to begin? The world I come from is another alternate reality based on the original timeline created by the CLAMP team. It was the final test. Kerberus had chosen Sakura to be the Cardcaptor. Yue had to judge her. She couldn't pull through, knowing that Yue possessed Julian's body.   
  
She had lost the right to become the mistress and the cards had to be resealed for the next chosen one, without any memory. However, the cards had grown fond of Sakura. When she lost, their wrath trembled across the globe like none other. They reset the world. No buildings of some sort. No modern civilization.   
  
Eventually the Clow removed itself from existence, taking all the Clow cards, Kerberus and Yue. You didn't know about the Clow's safety measurement? Whenever the Clow cards are not resealed after the failure of the test, the Clow would remove itself in order to ensure balance in the world. Unfortunately, the safety came too late and the cards had their way before disappearing from this world all together. There weren't too many survivors from the Readington area. Li and Sakura's family had passed away as well as most of the friends they had. Only Madison, Zachary, Mr. Terada, Chelsea, Sakura, Li and some others were spared from the apocalypse that bore down.  
  
Sakura had gone into a deep emotional trauma. The single fact repeated in her head from the voices of the people that had died: she failed the test. She was to blame for the disaster. Everything that ever existed from modern society had been destroyed except for the clothes on their backs and Madison's video camera. There was a lot of speculation but it was cleared up when the reports of unusual geological activity came up. It was supposed to be natural but Li, Sakura and Madison knew better. It was the Earthy card or so they thought.   
  
Li had some knowledge of using the land to grow food and other necessities. It was how his family lived by making the bare necessities. It was hard to make the transition from modern society to a simple community but after dedication and effort from everyone, the village had been built. The leader of this village would have to be Li since he was the one who had the ideas and who had the heart to see everything through.  
  
It took a while for Sakura to accept the facts and move on with her life. Li helped her in every way possible. How could she not fall in love with him? The rest of the world had stabilized with villages being set up. It was too hard to rebuild what they had and the resources that were once abundant were dried up.  
  
You know what follows blossoming love. Marriage, a romantic passionate honeymoon, agonizing screams as a woman tries to deliver her child...okay maybe not all the time. I always felt a little extra special as early as I can remember. What do you expect from a child who has parents that practice magic? They decided to name me Aragorn. (another little part of my secret Strider formula, based on J.R.R Tolkien's Strider/Aragorn. PLEASE DON'T SUE!!!!!!!!)  
  
Life was hard but joyous. My mother and my father loved me dearly. They raised me to be pure and hard working. Okay, father was the one who made me hard working and for that I thank him. I was educated to be ready to take my position as the new leader of the village. My father also taught me some of his magic in order to defend what has been built. We were a simple family. I thought that this was truly life. Then the dreams came.  
  
It began with me, standing there all alone in the black void. Suddenly a mysterious staff extended out to me. A voice was repeating itself in the darkness. "Take it...it belongs to you." I raised my head. "Who are you? Why does this belong to me?"   
  
"Do you not realize what this dream is?" I remembered father, telling me how dreams can sometimes predict things. "Is this a prophetic dream?" The voice chuckled. "No...this is a way for me to communicate with you. I'm your sleeping power that needs to be awakened." Fear was written all over my face. What if this power turned out to be evil? I had to know more.  
  
"How did I get these powers? Are they from my parents? Can they corrupt me?" The voice showed me a picture of an explosion. "The Big Bang, as those primitive human scientists call it, started up the universe. In fact, it started all of them. Beyond this world, a being granted celestial powers to wander the universes, searching for a suitable host. Someone with purity. Someone to defend all of them from the dark sides that must be created in order to create a balance."  
  
"You mean...me?" The voice chuckled. "Yes. You are the result of a fusion between two people who are soul mates over five thousand universes along with several others. Out of all the possible offspring they have had or could have, you are the purest. This staff belongs to you and nobody can take it away from you. All the questions about the past, the present and the future can be found within the powers that lie within."  
  
This happened several times. I could never really shake it off. My parents worried about me and let me know if I wanted to talk, they would be there for me. It started to irritate me, this dream. So one day, I decided to find some answers. I took the staff.  
  
Suddenly, I knew about what had happened in my world. What could happen. The amount of possibilities were so enormous. What could I do with these powers? I found the answer faster than you could say 'kawaii!' These were the powers of the Defender, the being who protects purity, innocence by defending those in need. I also learned that the balance had to be preserved so another set of powers were made. The Destroyer, the being who preserves purity and innocence by destroying countless worlds to ensure that they will never get corrupted. His name was Shadow. Mine was Strider.   
  
It took me a while to get all the answers about my powers and to master them as well. I learned about all the basic techniques. I also found out about capturing rogue powers of magic and transforming them into cards. With the unlimited amount of energy I possessed, I could easily generate the mana to seal and cast the spells. These powers were the ones behind the major earthquakes. They needed to reset the world in order for me to exist at all.  
  
What about the home village I knew so well? I finally decided to tell my parents and like any other parent, they overreacted. At least my mother did. I told them about what I stood for. My father was proud of me. He rubbed my black hair and smiled. Mother needed some time to adjust but she knew what I had to do. The robes from my father's cardcapturing days were handed down to me. I made a couple of personal adjustments like footwear, colour and a mask. The staff hung proudly on my side. I fixed my hair to create a ponytail. (think Trunks from DBZ. That hairstyle rocks!)  
  
After hugging my parents good-bye, I made my first dimensional jump into a world filled with darkness and despair. I saw the world, filled with demons and vampires and zombies. Already, it seemed that hope was lost. Then I saw him for the first time. Shadow, the Destroyer. He looked like me except his costume was red as well as his eyes and boots. He had a white haired ponytail with white baggy pants. The hat and mask were red as well. Instead of a staff, his weapon was a whip.  
  
"Shadow, stop!!" He looked at me. "So you are Strider..." I gave him a glare. "Can't you feel the souls that still exist on this planet? As long as there is purity, I must defend it!!" "You don't have a clue, do you? My, my...not only are you late but you have no idea about how purity is defined! It is fragile and rare. It could get corrupted so easily!!"   
  
We hovered down to the ground where I saw my parents' dopplegangers of this world. They were vampires but I still felt their souls. (an alternate reality of Lady Rapidash's story) The Li vampire spoke to us. "Are you here to save this world from the Lord of the Pit?" "You reek of corruption," spat Shadow. "Why are you even here?" I recognized those lines. The same ones I felt a knight say to a foreigner from a land that had been desecrated by evil.  
  
"I can capture the Lord of the Pit and transform it into a card." Shadow could barely contain his laughter. "Do you really expect that by sealing the evil into a card that everything will be okay? Evil is everywhere. You can never truly destroy it. I finally learned that lesson five centuries ago!"   
  
He studied me for a moment. "You just got your powers, I presume. I've had mine for over two millennia. For the past five centuries I've destroyed 398,374 worlds." He took out a Fire magic card. "What is that?" His eyes turned insane with power like Dilandau's for a moment. (Dilandau belongs to Sunrise. PLEASE DON'T SUE!!!!!)  
  
"You have no idea how the multi-verse works, do you?" I looked at him. He gave a small chuckle before he launched his Apocalypse spell. I knew he will do it. Acting quickly, I activated a vortex to suck all the demonic creatures, including my parents' dopplegangers. I had just added 2389 Death magic cards to my arsenal. Suddenly, the world vanished from underneath our feet.   
  
"Ah, peace. Space is truly the place where you can feel beauty from all directions. Well, I gotta go. A battle between Earth 482 and its space colonies is going on and I want to test out the Gundam I cobbled together!!" (Gundam belongs to Sunrise. PLEASE DON'T SUE!!!!) With that, he vanished into the next universe. I failed to defend this world. Yes, I saved the demonic creatures but what of the humans? A part of me taunted my failure, saying that I was just like my mother...a failure. She never was a failure. Not to me.   
  
I traveled through several dimensions, capturing all sorts of cards from all magic types. I even made Artifacts and Ultima cards. It has been five millennia since I left my homeworld. I set my thoughts on my world. The original homeworld from which I actually left instead of other worlds with my parallel dopplegangers. I wonder why they weren't chosen. In all sense, they were exactly like me. It was because their dark sides were terrifying and that these powers could unleash them. My dark side was mild thanks to the love from my parents.  
  
When I arrived, my mother's friend, Madison was crying. "Aunt Madison, what happened?" She looked at me and gave me a hug. "It was terrible. Some psycho appeared out of nowhere and started attacking. It was like he was testing some new power he acquired. Your parents died protecting us, protecting this village. That monster charred their bodies and devoured them." She started sobbing hysterically again. My heart had been ripped out of my body from fate. Eventually, the price of the Defender would have to paid and I paid all right. Even if I went back through time, the events of this world had already happened. I couldn't change things. As far as I was concerned, there can only be one world in which the village exists but Aragorn does not.   
  
I could have went crazy and transform myself into another Destroyer but I had to know who did this. Destroying my parents all just for a test of power. I traced the energy signature to the crossroads beyond the normal plane of existence I lived in. The signature came from a place called Shiv. It took me a while to discover the being who came here to gain power. His name is Tsabo Tavoc.  
  
I gained knowledge of how to walk through the different planes of existence. It lead me to places such as Serra's Sanctum, Tolaria, Rath, Kor, Phyrexia, Urborg and others filled with powerful magic. I studied, learned and captured the various elements to find myself almost at total peace.  
  
There were other places that needed my help. I've only stuck with worlds, worlds in which people I cared for were in a desperate situation. I had to find other people in desperate situations...ones that could change the world. (all various characters listed below belong to their respective owners. I am way too lazy to type them all. Just remember: DON'T SUE!!!!!!!!)  
  
There was the case of Serenity, Rabbit of the Moon. The purity she exhibited was just like my mother's. The world she creates is a world of peace, a Utopia. Perhaps this is a world that cannot get corrupted at all. I don't know if Shadow will destroy it, claiming that it could get corrupted and that he must preserve it as it is now.   
  
The children of the Digital World had many problems. At least they were still pure...most of the time. There was this dark world in which two factions were battling it out with people and Pokemon. A Team Rocket and a Squadron Comet. (Blue9Tiger, you rock!!!) There has been too much damage already. Should I destroy the world or simply the inhabitants?  
  
I sadly forced myself to blow up the world. Where would all the souls go? To Serra or to Phyrexia? It wasn't surprising that most of the souls went to Phyrexia. I went there and watched as the Phyrexians terrorized the souls of those corrupted by power. The police who claim to bring justice to the Rockets. "Well, well. You got some major guts, destroying a world like that. You may have some hope after all."  
  
I had become a Destroyer. How could I live with myself? What would my parents say? Shadow slapped me on the back. "You did what you had to do. Its only one world out of an infinite amount." "What about the souls? Can they ever be forgiven and reborn?"  
  
There were dark places everywhere. Even in Serra, a bit of darkness lay in the shadows of purity, waiting for a chance to strike. Then I found out about the Yawgmoth Priests. They played many worlds into selling the world's souls to Phyrexia. In return, Phyrexia would create demons. Powerful demons born from the dark combinations of corrupt souls and Death magic.  
  
This is why I fight Phyrexia. I have watched them create their powerful creatures. They send them to worlds that had eliminated corruption like Crystal Tokyo. I would go and fight those creatures only to come back and see the new horror step out of the laboratory. I have tried to destroy their plane but it is difficult. All I can do is weaken it so eventually, it would collapse. The Phyrexians became alarmed at this and started to take over as many worlds as they can so that there would always be a place for corruption. Even with our combined power, Shadow and I cannot destroy every world that belonged to the Empire.  
  
Here is where I stand. Here, at this world. Where purity still exists as well as hope. "They did it!!! I hate to admit it but you may be right about that super bond thing." I snapped back to reality where the battle had just been won. Sakura and Li...my parents' dopplegangers. They have the potential to pass the test. I have full confidence in their ability because they are dedicated like myself. We are alike in a way that we could be called family.  
  
Tell me what you think and review. Until next time...  



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